Austenitic stainless steel products represent an important segment of technological solutions for working at high and low temperatures and in corrosive environments. The surfaces of these steels cannot be hardened under normal technological conditions, although some products require a tough product and a hard (martensite) surface at the same time. Despite the enormous potential of this type of solution, there are no known solutions worldwide, and even applications in which the entire austenitic workpiece is transformed into a martensitic structure with cryogenic heat treatment are rare. The transformation of austenitic steels into a martensitic structure can be achieved much faster than by the cryogenic heat treatment by the cryogenic forming. The metallurgical fundamentals underlying these processes are incompletely researched and with models only poorly described in the literature.

The project will carry out fundamental research on cryogenic forming with the aim of bringing the technology to a level that allows the gradation of the material from the hard outer layer (martensite) to the tough core (austenite) to be controlled. The main objective of the project is the establishment of fundamental knowledge which enables flexible cryogenic cooling. This enables under the appropriate forming conditions the production of the mentioned gradation and the partial phase change of the cross-section to the desired depth.